The Self Employment Explorer was createddo my essay by a dedicated group of people across North America and with generous funding from the Government of Canada’s Social Development Partnerships Program. The opinions and interpretations in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Government of Canada. The goal of the author has been to provide youth with disabilities or other barriers to regular employment a toolkit of resources to explore the exciting possibilities offered through self employment. We have attempted to make this toolkit as inviting and inclusive as our means have allowed. We do hope you enjoy our offering!

Community Futures acknowledges the support and guidance of the following people and groups who gave us their time and expertise to realise the Self Employment Explorer and this Toolkit of resources:

The Pan Western Youth, Parent and Practitioner Focus Group participants from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba – for their time and insight, frank input and enthusiasm to help us get this Toolkit right.

Special thanks to:

Human Resources and Skills Development Canada- Office of Disability Issues.

The Development Team (Monica and Brent Krueger, Research; Ms. Lynn Smith, Website Developer and Media Encoder.

Ms. Donna Barker, the Toolkit Developer and writer of the Self-Employment Explorer

Ms. Line Severinsen, for her beautiful illustrations.

The University of Kent, England, for permission to reproduce the Careers Explorer on this website.